"Expert Mode" Changes

Later this evening we’ll be making a change on united.com that will remove the ability to see the specific allocation of seat inventory made to each Fare Class (this is the Fare Class hyperlink found in the right-most column when searching for flights or viewing itinerary details). I know that this is a popular feature for many of you here – in fact, we liked it too. But, it wasn’t without issues. Specifically, for many customers who are not as familiar with the ins and outs of fare structures, there was often room for this information to be misinterpreted. It also left the door open for undesired exposure that allowed automated scripts to scrape and re-display information in ways for which it was not intended.

That said, we have great appreciation for the transparency this information offered. For example, having a better understanding of how full a flight is, along with knowing how many other customers want to upgrade on a flight, can be critical in deciding whether to pay to guarantee a seat immediately, use mileage to upgrade, hold out to see if a space-available upgrade will clear or select another flight all together. We are committed to improving transparency around this. But, instead of simply exposing fare class inventory (which is quite confusing to most customers), we are working on better ways to share this more meaningful information. You’ll see one new feature added with this release and even more changes that work toward this effort in future releases.

While I can understand why United is doing this to preserve the integrity of their data however it's a major detraction for the customers, how are we now supposed to know if the flight can be confirmed right away with Upgrade Instruments UA Insider?

For those of us who understand the way things work, this 'dumbing down' of the website makes it more difficult to use, and time-consuming especially if we are looking for ways to use our (earned) upgrade instruments. I like to be able to see complete inventory, and the number of seats available, all in one place. Removing this feature makes the website harder to use, period.

Why can't there be a way to toggle the feature (that is defaulted 'off') so that the less-informed users simply have no idea it even exists? Or is there some other reason, like reduced breakage rate of GPU/RPUs? Why obfuscate inventory?

Definitely a big thumbs down from me. The ability to see the fare class was the easiest way to decide whether or not to book a certain routing for GPU use. Now we will have to use other means to find that information.

This is a really big disappointment. I would've rather seen a feature wherein only elites saw the feature or something else that limits it so that most people can't see it without specifically turning on the feature rather than its complete removal.

Being armed with information makes all aspects of the travel experience better, at least for me.

I know that this is a popular feature for many of you here – in fact, we liked it too. But, it wasn’t without issues. Specifically, for many customers who are not as familiar with the ins and outs of fare structures, there was often room for this information to be misinterpreted.

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Perhaps also remove the aircraft type, since that, too, can be misinterpreted by many customers and is subject to change. And while you're at it, since departure times change, why not just list the day and we all show up at 6am and you can allocate us to the flights that you happen to run that day. That's actually how I remember it working for one of the most customer oriented airlines back in the day, Aeroflot.